Heretofore, a meter unit has a scale board, a pointer, a stepping motor and an electric control circuit. The control circuit controls the stepping motor, so that the stepping motor rotationally drives the pointer on the scale board. One of those meter units is disclosed in JP-A-2001-264123.
On activating the meter unit, the control circuit controls the stepping motor so that the pointer should first return to an initial position, i.e., a zero point on the scale board, and the pointer is surely positioned in the initial position by a stopper system.
The stopper system has a mechanical stopping mechanism including a mechanical switch. On retuning the pointer to the initial position on the scale board, the mechanical switch is turned on and outputs a signal indicative of the detected position to the control circuit. Accordingly, the control circuit is enabled to determine that the pointer has positioned in the initial position.
However, in the above mechanical stopping mechanism, while the mechanical switch is soiled or oxidized, the mechanical switch is less likely to accurately function as described above. Accordingly, the meter unit, having the mechanical stopping mechanism, has the potential not to be able to detect that the pointer is positioned in the initial position.